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THE FLOWING BOWL
The ancients cooled their coppers, for the
most part, with ale, either small or large. And
I am led to the belief that cider, or some prepara
tion of apples, was also used as a pick-me-up,
if " melancholy vapours "—a complaint for which
Gervase Markham specially recommended cider
as a specific—meant the same thing as alcoholic
remorse. Search as I may I can find no recipe, no
prescription, in old books for " hot coppers." Can
it be that the ancients, who as previously pointed
out, were not teetotallers, deceived themselves
in protesting before men that they had no sin ?
Here is an old recipe headed :
" jlaalnst Drunkennesse.
o
" If youwould not be drunke, take the powder
of Betany and Coleworts mix't together ; and eat
it every morning fasting, as much as will lie on
a sixpence, and it will preserve a man from
drunkennesse."
But this is an alleged preventive of the act,
and not a chaser of sorrow from the brow of the
unwise partaker.
" To quicken a man's wits," writes the same
Mr. Markham, "spirit and memory, let him
take Langdebeefe"—can this mean langue de
hceuf?—"which is gathered in June or July,
and beating it ina cleane mortar; Let him drinke
the juyce thereof with warme water, and he
shall finde the benefit."
Probably the most useful part of this prescrip
tion was the warm water; still it can hardly
be regarded as a restorative.